Diverse Narratives

Performed through Storytelling and Encoded in Historical Architectural Sites

(Note: Page is under construction)

This is Fulbright-Hays GPA (Hindi) Short-Term Curriculum Development Project 2024 with thematic focus on storytelling traditions, conducted in partnership between Yuva Hindi Sansthan and the Hindi Program at New York University (NYU).

Yuva Hindi Sansthan, Inc. (YHS), a NJ based non-profit educational organization, in collaboration with the Hindi Program of New York University, received the 2024 Fulbright-Hays Group Projects Abroad (GPA) Short-Term Curriculum Development Project. It included a one  month Study Tour to  India for 12 participants as well as pre- and post-travel online sessions. Major collaborators are Hindi faculty from Michigan State University, University of Texas-Austin and Yale University from the US, and Rabindranath Tagore University, Benares Hindu University and Indira Gandhi Center for the National Arts from India. This project is built upon our experience gained during the execution of 2022 and 2023 Fulbright-Hays GPA projects on sustainability and wellness  that provided participants with a way of intellectually grasping the range of communities and cultures of India.

This year’s project helps participants develop tools to recognize and capture cultural diversity within a variety of contexts ranging from cultural languages, music, and dance to the social inscription of space through architectural and historical means. Participants of this program are introduced to Indian cultures  in a manner that avoids reductive oversimplifications predicted on an imagined homogeneity. The program aims at improving participants’ socio-linguistic competency and deepening their understanding of the cultural diversity of various communities in India by collecting, recording and examining their narratives and how they are conveyed through different artistic means. 

The program focuses on visual and verbal narratives because they reflect the uniquely rich cultural diversity of India, where each region, linguistic group, and community has its own set of histories, myths, legends, and folklore. They create a sense of continuity, shared identity and shared experience, among the members of the local community and foster social cohesion and community bonding. These narratives are a method of education and of preservation of cultural memory ensuring that knowledge is passed down to future generations. They are rendered through different arts that contribute to the rich tapestry of India’s cultural heritage.

The participants explore and collect academic materials and documents related to the historical, ideological and sociological perspectives of narratives that they are exposed to. They analyze them comparatively in terms of their main message, meaning and purpose.

More about the project.

Participants and Testimonies

Recap of the Study Tour by Academic Lead, Dr. Gabriela Nik Ilieva:

Participant Journals (in both Hindi and English):

The program in the media:

Our Youtube Channel (daily videos of lectures, site visits, meetings, interviews, etc.)

Our curricular materials:

Hindi:

Non-Hindi: